Customized Treatment Plans

Integration of treatments from different types of providers who manage pain should be the primary goal in all cases.

Sounds easy, right?

Unfortunately, it's not.

We're at a point where all the different providers who can help you are growing further apart, instead of learning to work together.

Who knows exactly why this is. Part of the reason is probably pride, and providers want to be the one who helps a patient in pain. Another factor is the cost of running practices, driving providers to do more instead of practice smarter - providers don't get paid to problem solve and think outside the box, they get paid to do things covered by insurances. Another reason is probably lack of knowledge about what other providers are doing - leading to lack of trust - so providers feel more comfortable doing things they know then referring out for help.

Ideally, a team should consist of people who understand biomechanics of the body, soft tissue therapies, joint manipulation, nutrition, safe exercise and stretching, medication management, injection therapies, surgeries, and more. Instead of one place having ALL the answers, we all have different tools that can help.

I do the best I can to incorporate all these modalities into patient education and customized plans. I continue to study areas where I am weak, and I am always searching for experts in these other fields I can send patients to for additional care.

Luckily for us all, the core of staying active lies in routines that we can control!

Nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress management are all tied to pain and function.

So these are the KEYS to longevity.

Studies have shown that nutrition effects our joints:

https://www.ahealthblog.com/junk-food-proven-to-be-a-cause-of-osteoarthritis.html

this is just one example, showing that simple carbs and saturated fats cause arthritic like changes in joints. The good carbs are complex carbs - peas, beans, whole grains and vegetables. The good fats are the unsaturated fats like omega-3 fatty acid containing foods. We also know that poor diets lead to poor gut health, which causes numerous systemic problems including pain and depression.

**Also, eating poorly has been shown in studies to cause more disease and death than smoking cigarettes.

"Restorative Sleep" is a popular term these days. The idea is that promoting a consistent sleep pattern allows your body to rest and heal. There is not a magic formula on how to do this, everyone is different.

You can try this link to get some basic info to try:

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleep-hygiene

Stretching and Exercise needs to be a daily routine, like washing your face and brushing your teeth. You don't have to KILL IT at the gym every time you workout, because this will often lead you to skipping workouts thinking you're "not in the mood." Doing something is better than nothing, and when you continue to make time to do something more often, you will get better and more efficient at what you do. It will be less of a burden, and become part of maintaining healthy mood and function.

Here is a link to a youtube channel with exercises focused on proper form to prevent injury:

https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24

**Also, inactivity has been shown in studies to cause more disease and death than smoking cigarettes.